Mao wrote some poems, two poems actually, about getting rid of a disease that was a plague for the country. And it's called "Saying goodbye to the God of Disease." And the poem needs annotation. In that sense, it"s typical of classical Chinese poetry; he makes references to earlier emperors and places.
Mauve waters and green mountains are nothing
When the great ancient doctor Hua Tuo
Could not defeat a tiny worm.
A thousand villages collapsed, were choked with weeds,
Men were lost arrows, ghosts sang
In the doorway of a few desolate houses.
Yet now in a day, we leap around the earth,
Or explore a thousand milky ways.
And if the cowherd who lives on a star
Asks about the God of plagues,
Tell him,, happy or sad, "The God is gone,
Washed away in the waters."
读六月三十日《人民日报》，余江县消灭了血吸虫。浮想联翩，夜不能寐。
微风拂晓，旭日临窗，遥望南天，欣然命笔。
绿水青山枉自多，华佗无奈小虫何！
千村薜荔人遗矢，万户萧疏鬼唱歌。
坐地日行八万里，巡天遥看一千河。
牛郎欲问瘟神事，一样悲欢逐逝波。
春风杨柳万千条，六亿神州尽舜尧。
红雨随心翻作浪，青山着意化为桥。
天连五岭银锄落，地动三河铁臂摇。
借问瘟君欲何往，纸船明烛照天烧。
（作于1958.07.01）
千村薜荔(bìlì必利)人遗：薜荔，野生常绿藤本植物。千村薜荔，形容很多村落荒凉。矢，同屎。“人遗矢”，借用《史记·廉颇蔺相如列传》所记战国时赵国名将廉颇的故事。廉颇被废，虽老仍健，赵王想再起用他，但派去的使臣却捏造说他一会儿就拉了三次屎(“顷之，三遗矢矣”)。这里指血吸虫病流行地区病人下泻不止，濒于死亡。
